uples. He may even have considered that his ability to play on this
instrument of the tinsmith's went far to put him on an equality with
some who boast themselves the only tool-using animals. True, the pan was
battered and rusty; but it was resonant, for all that, and day after day
he pleased himself with beating _reveille_ upon it. One morning I found
him sitting in a tree, screaming lustily in response to another bird in
an adjacent field. After a while, waxing ardent, he dropped to the
ground, and, stationing himself before his drum, proceeded to answer
each cry of his rival with a vigorous rubadub, varying the programme
with an occasional halloo. How long this would have lasted there is no
telling, but he caught sight of me, skulking behind a tree-trunk, and
flew back to his lofty perch, where he was still shouting when I came
away. It was observable that, even in his greatest excitement, he paused
once in a while to dress his feathers. At first I was inclined to take
this as betraying a want of earnestness; but further reflection led me
to a different conclusion. For I imagine that the human lover, no matter
how consuming his passion, is seldom carried so far beyond himself as
not to be able to spare now and then a thought to the parting of his
hair and the tie of his cravat.

Seeing the great delight which this woodpecker took in his precious tin
pan, it seemed to me not at all improbable that he had selected his
summer residence with a view to being near it, just as I had chosen mine
for its convenience of access to the woods on the one hand, and to the
city on the other. I shall watch with interest to see whether he returns
to the same pasture another year.

A few field sparrows and chippers showed themselves punctually on the
15th; but they were only scouts, and the great body of their followers
were more than a week behind them. I saw no bay-winged buntings until
the 22d, although it is likely enough they had been here for some days
before that. By a lucky chance, my very first bird was a peculiarly
accomplished musician: he altered his tune at nearly every repetition of
it, sang it sometimes loudly and then softly, and once in a while added
cadenza-like phrases. It lost nothing by being heard on a bright, frosty
morning, when the edges of the pools were filmed with ice.

Only three species of warblers appeared during the month: the
pine-creeping warblers, already spoken of, who were trilling on the
14th; th